He returned to the Reds as the manager of their rookie-level team, the Princeton Reds, in . The team won the Appalachian League championship and Stearns was named Manager of the Year. Afterwards, Stearns managed the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League and won his second minor league championship of the year. He was added to the Reds coaching staff during the 1995 campaign by manager Davey Johnson who defied team owner Marge Schott's refusal to pay the salary for an additional coach. Schott was oblivious to the situation because it was never mentioned in her presence and Stearns wore a jersey without his name on the back. Stearns was announced on January 5, 1996, as the first base coach on Johnson's staff with the Baltimore Orioles. He left the Orioles two years later in January 1998 when he was not retained by Ray Miller who had succeeded Johnson as manager. In , Stearns returned to the New York Mets as an advance scout. He was then made the Mets' bench coach in 2000. He was dismissed after the season, but re-hired as the third base coach. Younger fans witnessed Stearns's enthusiasm and excitability while he was a Mets coach in . He was wearing a microphone for Fox television when the Mets' Mike Piazza hit a run-scoring double in Game 1 of the 2000 NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals. Stearns's audible reaction of "The monster is out of the cage!" became a rallying cry for the entire series. After two years coaching the major league Mets, Stearns was let go, but hired as a scout for . In , he returned to the dugout as Manager of the Binghamton Mets. Despite a poor record with AA Binghamton, he was made the manager of the AAA Norfolk Tides for . Stearns spent as a roving catching instructor for the Mets. On January 11, , Stearns became a coach in the Washington Nationals farm system. He spent one season as manager of their triple A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers, and spent two seasons as manager of the Nationals' double A team, the Harrisburg Senators. Stearns joined the Seattle Mariners as minor-league catching coordinator in 2011 and then served as a professional scout in 2012. On May 2, 2013, was named the interim manager for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers after Daren Brown replaced third-base coach Jeff Datz at his position